Royal Albert Memorial Museum refurbished
Volunteer Coordinator, Alice MacGregor Haywood and Amal Khreisheh, Documentation Assistant, visited us in January to talk about the process of updating the museum and how it looks now.
RAMM needed improvements as there was not enough public space and some of the walls were unstable due to building over a roman moat in the 19th century. Damp and light control needed updating. After fundraising for 6 years, RAMM closed in December 2007 and it took a year to pack up and clear objects from museum – some were left in tightly packed areas. 8500 stuffed birds in collection had to
be packed. One of the paintings was 3½ x 4½ metres so to get it out of the building it had to be painted with a waxy coating and rolled up.
Mid C20th false ceilings were removed revealing the original lofty ceilings. Prefab buildings in the central courtyard were removed and it is now a large covered space in the middle of the museum. The major building work finished in spring 2011, then it was a mad rush to refill and complete the displays by December 2011. There is now 40% more exhibition space.
Gerald the Masai giraffe is still on display. He was killed in 1901 and arrived in 1919 from the slopes of Kilimanjaro. They consulted with zoos as to how to move him and used a hydraulic lift. He was stored in a covered crate to keep the dust off and used the time to renovate him, removing boot polish which had been used to darken his spots and hooves.
"The Ark" is the museum storage facility on Marsh Barton finished in 2007. They have over a million objects and 95% of the collection will still be in storage at any one time. They have their own design staff and technicians so make their own mounts and display cases. There are 107 volunteers at present.
The new layout was described. The galleries are on two floors and there is now better access, easy for wheelchairs, and have Ipod tours, and Braille. If any member of the public has an interesting or rare collection it can be displayed in the Finders Keepers section for 6 months.
Nearly 60 people attended the presentation which whetted everyone’s appetite for a visit to the ‘new’ RAMM.
S Cooper